There are always a few key indicators that we are getting deep into the month of March. The first is that I am running low on sleep thanks to my college basketball focused day job at CBS Sports Network. The second involves schools from the colder MCLA climates either first starting their seasons, or really starting to spread their wings in their respective schedules.

At the same time, the third indicator has my March-fueled bracketology senses going as teams from warmer climates are truly starting to see just how close they are to breathing easy with at-large bids on the line.

On that note, we start in Division II as No. 12 Palm Beach Atlantic had a chance to claim a top ten spot in the Nike/IL Poll and seal an at-large bid with a win over a ranked, regional foe in SCAD. Avenging an upset from last year where the Sailfish took down SCAD 21-14, SCAD took this years’ meeting 11-9. PBA would go on to defeat No. 9 Sam Houston State 13-4 for their second top-ten win of their Sailfish shootout having beaten a travel fatigued Grand Valley State team earlier in the week; GVSU dropped from No. 2 to be tied at No. 9 with Sam Houston. It looks like PBA might have still managed to get their first-ever trip to the MCLA tournament and become that 2013 breakout program, but the in-region, SELC loss to SCAD scares me. The PBA-SCAD upset of 2012 saw a SCAD team who similarly performed well out of conference earn an at-large bid to Greenville last year while being excluded from the SELC postseason. The Sailfish are in very strong position nationally but still have tough regional games with No. 16 Florida Gulf Coast and Georgia Southern on the horizon; entering those with a leg down on Mike Cummings and the Bees from Savannah. The Sam Houston Bearkats are now in a position where they absolutely must win out for their AQ lacking LSA Title in order to get an at-large bid to this years’ dance.

On the Division I side of things, there are two first-year head coaches who are beginning stints at Big Ten schools in two different MCLA conferences. Brandon Schwind of Michigan State in the CCLA had to cancel his season opener with Grand Valley due to weather and is scheduled to open with No. 10 Duluth, No. 1 Colorado State and a 2012 MCLA Tournament team in Illinois this weekend.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous,” said a prudent yet prepared Schwind who returns a ton of fire power on offense.

On the other side of the lake in the UMLC, Rich Limpert takes over for Joe Cinosky at the head post for the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Currently 3-0 and a bit untested, the Gophers are in the Desert meeting No. 6 Arizona State, No. 22 Arizona and No. 24 Grand Canyon.

MCLA PODCAST: MICHIGAN STATE'S BRANDON SCHWIND

Franklin’s 15 Minutes of Fame

Division I Player: Nick Widmer, So., G, Oregon State
Made 17 saves, allowed seven goals in a win over Sonoma St.

Division I Coach: Ken Lovic, Georgia Tech
The Yellow Jackets are 5-0 since their two-game skid with big wins over Pitt and Buffalo.

Looking Ahead

With a two-goal loss to No. 5 Chapman, Richmond continues to be the most dangerous unranked MCLA team. I see the spiders causing problems for No. 15 and No. 19 Pitt in OOC action before winning out to claim the #2 spot in the Northwest region for the SELC playoffs. If the Spiders go deep there, with two quality wins on record while getting their starting goalie back in the process, it could get interesting.

The Thursday slate includes the Gophers and the Sun Devils as well as a Texas State-UConn game which should be a great litmus test for both programs. No. 4 Colorado travels to No. 18 Cal Poly and has opportunities to jump even higher in the poll with a matchup with No. 7 UCSB on Friday. Alex Smith and the Rams take their 17-game win streak and national title from last season to Illinois to play Michigan State and Duluth while the Bulldogs and Spartans will also face-off against the Fighting Illini who have arranged to play host. Saturday features a rematch of the 2011 National Title game as No. 2 BYU meets Arizona State as the Cougars will be coming off a game with Grand Canyon on Friday. It will also be interesting to keep an eye on Texas State-Northeastern this Saturday while No. 23 Buffalo wraps up their season-opening SELC road trip with Florida and Virginia Tech.

Division II excitement begins Thursday as we see the red hot No. 14 Liberty Flames travels to the Midwest to face Grand Valley State and then have the Nichter brothers and No. 15 Indiana Tech waiting in the wings on Friday. Missouri Baptist (1-3) tries to get back on track against SCAD and Kennesaw this weekend as Andy Joly’s team from the GRLC is currently 0-2 against the SELC this year. Who did MoBap get their lone win against? The answer is Oakland, the alma mater of Joe Opron and Billy Binge which now competes in CCLA Division II.

Looking Way Back

In the middle of spring break there is lots of action to analyze but sometimes it’s fun to slow things down and take a look at the MCLA’s past. Over the course of this last year, I met Alex Perry, a unique MCLA personality who started the program at the University of Oklahoma, guided Pitt to their first MCLA Tournament as an Associate Head Coach, and now doubles as a full-time Warrior/New Balance e-commerce employee in St. Louis while helping out as a volunteer assistant at Missouri Baptist, where he hopes to start his MBA next year.

Perry became a Sooner after leaving a childhood in Texas to find lacrosse later in life when his family moved to Ohio.

“A club program had existed at OU but it was very dormant and there were difficult elements to fight against,” he said.

A lack of student enthusiasm really left OU Lacrosse at a grassroots condition and the fact that the sport was once outlawed in the state being viewed as a violent war game didn’t help matters. To make a long story short, Perry essentially started the team from scratch, joining the MCLA and LSA in 2005 as a Division II team before matriculating to Division I the next season.

“All-in-all, I take pride in providing an opportunity for students at Oklahoma to play lacrosse at a high level without it dominating the rest of their college lives,” he said. “It is very cool to travel around, see the Big 12, compete and still have enough time to study and have fun.”

After graduation from the Price College of Business, Perry was looking for a job and saw an opening for a buyer position at Dick’s Sporting Goods. Simply enough, Alex applied, got hired and was placed in a position in Pittsburgh where he assisted in the purchasing of lacrosse products.

“While in Pittsburgh, I eventually came to meet [Pitt Head Coach Sean Buzzard] through the local lacrosse community and I joined the Panthers as an assistant for the 2011 season.”

When looking back on how he was able to help the program to their first national tournament last season, he credits Michigan’s presence in 2011 and a lack thereof in the CCLA in 2012.

“Coaching against Michigan, we saw what being the best possible MCLA program was all about. We learned from it in 2011, replicated it in 2012 and we were fortunate enough to get an at-large bid to Greenville after losing to Michigan State in the CCLA Finals.”

Perry is not the only notable MCLA alum that works in the Warrior/Brine Lacrosse family. James Lanciotti graduated from Purdue in 2010 where he played attack for the Boilermakers; Lanciotti currently works as a sales rep for Warrior in the Dallas Area. Billy Binge, a Brine Product Manager who is a crack product designer for the company is arguably one of the best MCLA players of all-time. Graduating from Oakland in 2004, Binge helped the Grizzlies snap a 56-game CCLA win streak for the Michigan Wolverines in the Conference Tournament that year.

“Billy was a special player, playing a different game on a different level and by far the most talented and complete attackman I've ever seen in the MCLA,” said George Washington coach Joe Opron, who played alongside Binge on the Oakland attack. It is also important to point out that Opron, an attorney, has official documents proving that Binge had an MCLA career in which he amassed 408 total points which is 63 more than BYU’s Ted Ferrin, who currently sits atop the MCLA All-time scoring leaders on the league website (whose archives only go back to 2006).

In the spirit of this MCLA history lesson, it is crucial to note that while Binge’s three-goal, one-assist effort in that Michigan game no question helped the Grizzlies that day, but it was GW’s Opron who stole the show with four goals and two assists including the game tying goal with two seconds remaining in regulation and of course, the game winner in double overtime.